Category: Freebie Friday

Good morning, lovelies! It’s Friday, which not only means I’m closer to Spring Break now than I was last week, but it’s also the day I can talk about whatever I want. And since things are a little hectic at home and work, today I’m going to leave you with the names of my top 10 favorite podcasts I love to listen at work. Next week (fingers crossed), I’ll be able to go in depth as to why these podcasts are my absolute favorite.

In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite podcasts:

The Goal Digger with Jenna Kutcher

The Bitch Bible by Jackie Schimmel

Boss Girl with Taylor Bradford

Girlboss Radio with Sophia Amoruso

Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert

Reality Bytes with Stephanie Beatriz and Courtney Kocak

Don’t Keep Your Day Job with Cathy Heller

The Marie Forleo Podcast with Marie Forleo

Write Now with Sarah Werner

Create If Writing with Kirsten Oliphant

Do you listen to podcasts? Which are your favorites? Did any of your favorites make my list?

Due to the horrible attack in France, and in honor of the lives that were taken, Freebie Friday will be muted. Please, remember to keep their family members and friends in your prayers. France, stay strong. We stand with you.

Hey, lovelies. It’s been a while, but I’m back with yet another serious post for Freebie Friday. In the past few days you may have seen the names Alton Sterling and Philando Castile trending. There’s footage of one of these men being killed on camera, the aftermath after the other man was shot, a child breaking down during a press conference, and a young girl trying to console her mother while her father is dying in the front seat of a car.

They tell us we’ve come a long way. They say that racism is gone. They say that we have our freedom. Do I believe that? I want to. Sure, we’re all able to go to the same schools, befriend people of the opposite race, and ride to the front of a bus; but if freedom is being able to shoot up a nightclub, shoot a singer during a meet & greet, or shooting two innocent black men, you can keep your freedom, America. I often wonder why our world is like this. And I think I may have the answer.

As black people, we’ve all been grouped together as gangsters, thugs, whores, niggers (yes, I said it)…we’re so much more than this though. Rap music, grills, short shorts, and having to sell drugs to provide for our families has labeled us that way. Police officers killing these innocent black men is NOT okay. The public has no right to talk about our black men not being stand up citizens, and not being in their children’s lives if it’s okay for officers to continue killing them and getting a slap on the wrist as the consequence. Our young black men need their fathers in their lives…stop leaving these poor children fatherless. It’s not okay and it’s not right.

Alton Sterling was from Louisiana, as am I. So knowing that a shooting like this occurred in my state makes me aware that these killings aren’t just limited to Trayvon Martin or Tamir Rice, but it makes me realize that Trayvon or Tamir could’ve been my two nephews; Alton and Philando could’ve been my father or one of my uncles. Since when is it okay for a man of the law to shoot and kill a man for reaching for his license? He told the officers he had a gun and that he had a license for it, yet he was still killed. And for the mayor of Minnesota to say that he think this would’ve played out differently had Philando been a white man, it shows you just how much further we have to go in this world. So how do we solve these issues?

If we want America to take us serious when we say Black Lives Matter, we as black people have to come together, put aside our differences, and stop killing our own kind. We can’t just preach that Black Lives Matter when our kind is killed by a white man, but say “Free my boy Ray Ray” if Ray Ray is in jail for shooting another black man. It doesn’t work that way.

Secondly, we must teach our black children that not all officers are corrupt. I can say that because I have a friend who’s on the force down here, and she’s one of the kindest people I know. The shield doesn’t just protect them, but it protect us as well. Teach our children that it’s okay to go to an officer in a crisis.

Don’t try to “get justice” by taking matters into your own hands. Don’t go around shooting up protests in the name of a person’s life that was taken due to gun violence. You’re adding to the problem…not solving it.

When someone from a different race comes to you and tell you that all lives matter, not just black lives…don’t get enraged. Yes, it’s true all lives matter. But you can’t solve an issue by arguing. Everyone has struggles, so they may not see that it’s harder for a black person to succeed in life. No, instead tell them you fear that your child could become another statistic. Tell them how you fear that you can’t teach your child to defend themselves because an officer may see that as resisting. You can’t teach them to run away in fear of them being shot to death. And you fear that your black son might come off as “big and intimidating” to an officer.

Finally, come together as a whole…black, white, Asian, Hispanic, and make a difference. Don’t just talk about it, be about it. Stop allowing the public to pin us against one another.

I know this post was all over the place, but this world is all over the place. It’s a messed up world. Years back, when the Trayvon Martin shooting occurred, I read this article. It was an article from a mother to a young, black boy. She was asking the parents of a young, white boy to teach their child about how our black children are being killed by the police. She also requested, if our sons are together and they are approached by an officer, please ask your son to stay with mine, and don’t run and leave him stranded. Is the world we’re living in really becoming a place where we have to ask children of the opposite race to walk our children home to ensure they aren’t targeted and gunned to death?

So, again, they say we have our freedom. But are we really free?

This post is dedicated to Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the following people listed below. They may no longer be able to speak, but I will continue speaking for them and bringing awareness to the fact that Black Lives Matter. I will continue preaching this with my fist in the air, bringing awareness to it, and making people understand that our black skin isn’t a sin. We’re human too. And if you think this post is racist, officer bashing, or Caucasian bashing, then you’ve completely missed the point.

This post was typed up before the shooting in Dallas occurred. I’m not going to sit here and act like one person’s life matters more than the other. So, this post is also dedicated to the officers whose lives were taken during the Dallas protest last night. Like I said before, all cops aren’t bad. These officers were trying to protect protesters from the gunshots. We have to end this violence now, or else we’ll never be able to move forward in this world.

Hey Lovelies! Welcome back to another Freebie Friday. I’ve actually tried writing two posts for you guys, before deciding this would be the post for today. On Wednesday, I pledged to read 5 books outside of my preferred genre, and today I thought I’d share with you the books that I’m possibly considering.

A novel with a male main character: The Boys Club by Angie Martin
A novel with a same sex couple: Honesty by Seth King
Romantic suspense: When Death Calls by Elaine Meece
A fantasy/supernatural novel: Bound by Kira Saito
A nonfiction novel: P.S. Your Not Listening by Eleanor Craig

Also, if I have the time, I might try to squeeze in a 6th book: A novel by an author you wouldn’t generally read a novel by. For this novel, I have Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult in mind. I’m not really a big Jodi Picoult fan. I tend to not read novels by her, or watch films that are based on her novels. This is just a personal preference…I’m not telling people to not read her stuff, but I’m just saying I normally wouldn’t. Besides, I think reading Nineteen Minutes would be a perfect book to read right now with all of the gun violence going on.

As I mentioned before, these novels aren’t set in stone, so if you have any novels that you’d like to recommend, please leave them in the comments’ section. Have a wonderful Friday!

Mondays are officially my favorite nights because of my television schedule. For those of you who don’t know this, I have an Associate’s Degree in Writing for Film and Television. Earning that degree was some of the best (and worse) times in my life. It made me appreciate the little things in film and television, but it also made me very opinionated as well. For example, a lot of people are always complaining about how the movies aren’t like the books, but did you know that adaptations are only meant to be a percentage of the novel, not 100%. I’ll stop rambling and trying to make excuses for my television obsession.

On Monday night, two of my most favorite shows premiered for their respective seasons. The first one, Mistresses. I originally started watching this show because I’m an Alyssa Milano fan, and let’s be honest, the show was super dramatic. However, ever since Alyssa’s character left and her sister fell in love with her husband, the show isn’t my favorite. But for some reason I still watch it. Crazy, right?

So my next show is Scream. I was a little drawn to this show because I’m OBSESSED with the Scream movies. Some people aren’t fans of the show because it doesn’t resemble the movies, but I think it’s a great show. People need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to TV series vs. the movies or books vs. the movies. I’m not even sure who the Lakewood killer is, but I feel like it’s someone that’s been there all along. Below are my theories as to why each of the Lakewood Six could be considered the killer. If you’ve never watched this series, proceed with caution because a few spoiler alerts from season 1 and 2 might pop up in these theories and spoil it for you.

Audrey: At the end of Season 1, we all saw Audrey burn those letters that she had written to Piper. And out of the six of them, Audrey seems the guiltiest at something, and is not a fan of reliving what happened the night Piper was killed.

Emma: Emma is Brandon James’ daughter. Who’s to say she didn’t inherit some of his psycho genes? What if Emma is some sort of masochist and enjoys torturing herself and her friends. Also, I feel like it’d be a SUPER TWIST if Emma was the killer. That’d be equivalent to killing a main character in a movie before the film ended.

Noah: Noah is today’s modern day Randy…the dictionary of horror information. I feel like Noah is an obvious choice as the killer. Not only is he obsessed with all things Brandon James, but he has a lot of horror knowledge, and could probably get away with the perfect murder.

Brooke: Brooke wasn’t one of my favorites in the first season, however her character looks as if she’s trying to mellow out a little. But can the transformation be trusted? Brooke is popular and she’s best friends with Brandon James’ daughter. Maybe she got tired of Emma being the popular one for being “Lakewood’s star”.

Kieran: I’m not sure why, but ever since Kieran showed up to Lakewood, I’ve never trusted him. He just has this guilty look about him. Even when his dad was killed in (what I like to call) true Wes Craven fashion, I still didn’t trust him.

Jake: Until he was killed in Monday’s episode, I didn’t trust him. I still don’t trust him. Was his death staged? I doubt it, but it’s television, so nothing is impossible. However, before he was killed, there was a sign that said something about Boy Interrupted. Did anyone hear when he called Emma Girl Interrupted at the party? Which leads back to my original theory, Emma could very well be the Lakewood killer and pulling the wool over all of our eyes.

Did you guys watch anything exciting this week? Tell me about it in the comments below. Also, if you’re a fan of the show Mistresses, what do you think about Joss and Harry’s relationship? If you’re a fan of Scream, I want to know who you think is the Lakewood killer behind the mask and why.